Ordinary to Extraordinary
by Dream Journal
Summary: An ordinary High School Student. The Underland. His experiences within may just change them more than they have changed him. Rated T but it may be better or worse as I get farther into it, subject to change.
1. Some beginning notes

Hello readers! I'd like to make this first part to explain a bit about this story and why I'm writing it, and a bit of detail. First off, I am not sure if I want to include the New York aspect of it, which could mean no Gregor, although I would want to use an OC in his place. When I first read this series, I loved it. But as I've grown up and entered my senior year of High School, I'm still in love with the story. Plus I hated the ending how they cut off so many questions. It's like Avatar The Last Airbender but make it so that Aang flys away and never comes back at the end! But I've always been fascinated by the idea of the Underland, and what if a normal person went there? What if the events of the Books never took place and I made it start about 2 years after? Of course the Underlanders would be the same characters, otherwise how would this be a fanfic? I really do want to just use the Underland though. I love the pairing Gluxa/Gruxa/Insertcombinationoftheirname shere and I do love the New York cast of characters, but I feel like I want to do it from a kid from today's times? Not that Gregor was from the past, just maybe someone more average than the poor NYC boy? Perhaps just an average High School student? I guess I'm sort of taking notes, but I'm going to upload this anyways. If you absolutely CANNOT handle the idea of Gregor in this story, there will definitely be similarities between him and the protagonist and by all means you can take this story and change his name if it makes you feel better :P But for now I feel like changing it up a bit. I want the Underland's cast of characters to meet a new protagonist. A new warrior. I hope you guys follow my fic, and I'll keep writing for you! I have written a lot but never uploaded anything and as this is my first fanfic where I want to do something majorly different, it seems this is the time to make one upload worthy. Just feels like all the fics here are becoming too similar. Also, if any of you are a fan of Collier World's Underland fics? Join the club I love them to death and hope he continues the sequel. Well we can dream can't we? But seriously finish them and I'll love you forever C-Dawg. Ohgodwhy did I say that. Anyways, it's time to get to work. I will try to upload AT A MINIMUM once a week, although to be honest I'm excited about this story and will probably do more often than that depending on how I feel. Also if I have a lot of homework and projects from school I will have to take that as priority, sorry. As a last note, if you like my name it's because I had a dream journal of stories I write, and that's where many of my ideas that end up in some stories start? I'll probably leave some messages in me in the end to talk about interesting tidbits like that. Anyways I've rambled off topic! I do that a lot! I hope you read my story, and enjoy it.

-Warmest Regards,  
Dream Journal

P.S. I try hard on grammar but sometimes I make mistakes!


	2. Chapter 1 - Fateful Morning

Chapter 1 – Fateful Morning

The alarm clock erupted into its morning routine, and Zach bolted upright. While the alarm clock seemed to be excited about its wonderful new day, Zach had a slightly less enthusiastic view. "Argh…" Muttered Zach as he wiped sleep from his eyes and stared around his room. It was still dark out, so his room was almost completely enshrouded in darkness. He looked over to the alarm clock. 5:42. Wonderful… Zach navigated his way from his bed to his door to find his light switch, as he had done countless times. As he turned on the lights he was assaulted by the sight of his room. Clothes and random things everywhere, his bed seemed to be surrounded by carnage of the teenage variety. The dresser against the far wall seemed useless since most of his clothing was just on the floor anyways. Oh well. Zach slowly made his way out his door into the hallway and took a right into the bathroom. He looked in the mirror as he brushed his teeth. His brown hair had grown down, just barely above his eyes, unkempt from sleep but generally not cared for too much. His face was for the most part without acne except for a small bump on the bridge of his nose. He was wearing a blank gray shirt and blue pajama pants, and by the looks of it the shirt may have needed a wash. He was pretty average height, and a bit thin, but not scrawny. Zach finished up in the bathroom to his sister rapping on the door. "Zach get out, I need to get in!" she whined through the small door. She always seemed to complain as he was leaving. He walked out the door past his freshmen sister, as she dashed into the bathroom.

Past the bathroom the ceiling was a lot lower, and the walls met at the top forming the roof, so he had to watch his head as he turned at the end of the hall around to catch the stairs that always seemed to have something on there to trip him up. This time it was a box of things for his sister's room and he nearly fell down the stairs as he discovered they were there, and managed to catch himself on the next step. "Come on, Mom! Why can't you or Lily just put your stuff upstairs? I'm tired of tripping on it every morning." Zach sighed as he walked into the kitchen, to pour a quick bowl of cereal. He looked at the clock downstairs, it read 5:56. He still had a bit of time, since he showered last night in order to sleep that extra 10 minutes. "Your bus is going to be at the stop soon, you should leave soon. I don't want to have to drive you again." Said his mom. She said this every morning but still managed to be right. Zach ate his cereal and hurried up stairs and got dressed quickly, coming down just a couple minutes later and putting on his shoes and messenger bag and heading out the door. "Later Mom, I'm off now." He said as he left, he could barely hear her reply as he closed the door.

The house he was living in was built in the 50's, and was not that big, but not too small. He and his sister and mother managed to live in it comfortably enough. As he walked down the road and took the turn to his stop, he could see the Bust just pulling up about 1 block ahead of him. "Damn…" He muttered to himself as he took off, running for the bus. He sprinted up to it but as he got there it was already leaving, and as the students on the bus were too tired to care, nobody realized he was left there. "This is not good, Mom probably left for work already, now I'm screwed…" He thought to himself. But Zach knew today wasn't a very big day, no tests or projects due, just a math assignment he hadn't fully completed anyways. He decided to "take the day off". As if he had other options… He walked back to his house, sort of relieved that he wasn't going to school today. With plans to go up to his room and surf the web, he walked up to the front door. Locked. He opened up his messenger bag looking for the key, but to no avail. He left it inside. He was locked out. "Damn it!" He cried out loud, and proceeded to start the walk to his dad's house about 2 ½ miles away in the same town. His neighborhood at his Mom's house was not much of a neighborhood. More like a street that went out to the main road at the end, where his bus stopped. As he made it to the main road, there were very few cars, as it was pretty early in the morning and he was able to just walk across the street instead of going to the crosswalk. The sign about the Goldtree Halloween Party was already up, halfway through September. He passed it as he went down main street pass the Japanese restaurant he loved, and could smell food cooking. They had to get up early too, and food they were preparing smelled delicious, and it made his stomach growl. A bowl of cereal probably wasn't enough for a great breakfast, but he could get more at his dad's house. Speaking of, he should call his dad. As he dialed his father's number, took a turn down a trail that led to a river. The shortcut to his Dad's part of town. The valley had a lot of places like these in small towns. Trails that led to different parts of town, that were shorter than the roads even though they weren't intended to be used as such, Zach liked to use them anyways. "Hey buddy!" His dad said as he picked up, excited to have his son calling him. "Hey Dad, I managed to miss the bus and I'm locked out of Mom's place. Think I can crash at yours and do my work there for today?"

"Sure, I get what it's like at your age having to get up at the crack of dawn. I remember once when I was a kid, I missed the bus and managed to hang out with a few friends who brought a bottle of whiskey, and… well… Never mind don't do that haha!" Rambled his Dad, as he was prone to doing so often.

"Thanks Dad, I'll be there in a bit, just going to walk down there, if you leave before I get there just leave a key under the mat for me." Said Zach softly as it was still morning. He walked down the trail, surrounded by a lot of trees that reminded him of this game on his computer where you walked through a forest being stalked by a faceless creature. It was pretty scary, and had Zach a bit on edge as he thought about it.

"Alright, no problem son. Just make sure your mother doesn't find out, she'll have my head if she knows I let you skip school like this. But boys will be boys! I love you son." Said his father happily over the phone

"Love you too Dad, I'll be there in a bit. Thanks a ton." They said their goodbyes and he hung up the phone. He was just able to see the main road behind him, in the darkness. But he had traveled this trail a lot in daylight, so it can't be that different at night. As it got closer to the river it eventually turns to, he saw the turn off to where the trail from his father's neighborhood was. As he approached the turn off, he heard a noise. A shuffling in the bushes just ahead on the left side of the trail. Zach got down on his knees and looked out from behind the trail sign, curious as to what it was but a bit frightened along with all the darkness. As he watched the brush down the trail, he saw a cloaked figure emerge onto the trail, check both ways to make sure he wasn't followed, and then did something peculiar. He was sure the person hadn't seen him, but as the man lifted his head up slightly, Zach could have sworn he heard breathing, and then what sounded like a small series of clicks. The figure suddenly turned toward the river from the trail and quickly ran down the trail.

Now Zach was really curious. He was a bit scared, following a cloaked figure down a trail in the dark, but he was more curious than anything. As nothing big ever happened in this tiny town, he wanted to know just what was going on here. As he took off after the figure, he could barely keep up with him. He was fast, but didn't seem to notice or care that Zach was there. He slowed down as they got up to the bridge that went across the river, where he normally didn't go unless it was summer time. He saw the cloaked figure go down under the bridge, and disappear from sight. Zach approached the bridge, and heard voices underneath. The first voice was raspy, and sounded a bit strained. "Hey, sorry I'm late. I managed to get a few though, I'm sure the Lord will be pleased."

Zach wondered what the hell they were talking about, but kept listening. The second voice sounded more normal, but feminine. "Hey, you cannot just be late like this. It is a treat you get to see this world anyways, even I have not seen it. But think what if you were seen? What then? You could risk everything for a couple Overland fruits!" Her voice slowly rose throughout the scolding.

Overland? Lord? Just what was this all about? Was there some cult going on? This sounded incredibly strange. "Oh please, Miss Queeny, as if you haven't done something stupid or dangerous before" the raspy voice said with a laugh at the end.

"But my adventures do not merit the risk of everything we know." She sighed "Oh well, you would not listen to me even if I wanted you to, would you now Quicksilver? Were you followed? Did anyone see you?" she said with cold preciseness at the end, as she got to business.

"I don't think so-" The voice dropped to a whisper and stopped. Zach realized what he thought was a man was checking, he hid on the bridge, behind the side quickly. But he had gone up the other side, not where he had originally gone down and turned to Zach. "You! What are you doing here!" He rasped out and ran up to Zach as he was getting up and grabbed him and shoved him up against the side of the bridge's railing. Zach struggled and was panicking now. As the figure was about to keep talking, he heard the other one coming up. "Quicksilver, let him go. Do not injure our guest." She said in a soft tone. Pushed Quicksilver aside, and turned to face Zach, brushing the dirt off his shoulder. She had a cloak on too, so it was hard to make out her features. "Now, what exactly are you doing spying on us?" She said softly, but cold as ice.

"I wasn't meaning to spy… I just… I saw a man running down the trail this early as I was off to my Dad's place, and I didn't know what it was about! Why are you even here? What's all this talk about an Overland and apples?" Zach cried out, scared but able to keep talking.

The girl took raised her hands to the long black cloak's hood and pulled it off. Zach saw before him a very pale, very blonde almost silver haired girl. She was just a bit shorter than him, and looked at him with intense eyes he could just recognize as violet in the ever so growing amount of light. "You are coming with us. Do not put up a fight, or I will be just as happy to knock you out and drag you with us." She said with half a smile on her face, and a cocky look in her eyes.

The one known as Quicksilver was about to protest when the girl stopped him and walked to him and whispered something to him Zach couldn't catch all of. Something about a prophecy? These people sounded crazy, and Zach was freaking out. They didn't appear hostile though, so he didn't put up a fight as they led him under the bridge to what was going to, unbeknownst to him, the beginning to an adventure he didn't ask for but always wanted.

**I hope you liked it! Please drop me a review of what you thought! I'm not going off the placement of the Underland being below New York, and I decided to move it to below a small town in the country. I am very excited about this story, and will most likely post another chapter later today or tomorrow. Reviews would be very nice, I love to know how i'm doing! And if you have constructive criticism by all means PLEASE put it in! I need all the help I can get! xD**


	3. Chapter 2 - The drop

Chapter 2 - The Drop

"If I had just caught the bus. That stupid bus. I wouldn't be kidnapped by a bunch of creeps in cloaks and being taken under here" Thought Zach mournfully as he was being taken down the steep rocky decline.

"You've given us a lot of trouble, you're lucky the Queen is here or I'd have taken your head off myself, boy." Said the one known as Quicksilver in his raspy voice. Everyone stopped and Quicksilver looked at his partner and they both laughed.

"You sound just like him sometimes, it is quite frightening!" said the girl, in a humorous whisper as she rounded under the bridge.

The bridge was over a river that got very high when the spring and summer rain came, but during Fall and Winter there were times when the water was low enough to go under the bridge. What Zach saw as he rounded the post that supported the bridge surprised him. An old bunker it looked like, from when people were afraid of nuclear war. The hatch was wide open, and the thing looked like it locked from the inside.

"Sometimes I can't help it, his mannerisms are so hilarious!" said quicksilver and gave a small chuckle. They both turned to face Zach, and the girl spoke first.

"In here is where we will begin, but you are going to have to start off by learning a few things you might find unsettling." Said the girl in a very serious tone, much different than a moment ago. "Show him, Quicksilver. That will be one way to start."

"Wait wha-" But Zach was cut off by Quicksilver removing the hood from his cloak, and in the ever increasing light of the early morning, he could see what looked like a very hairy creature of some sort. "What the hell is that?!" Zach exclaimed in shock of what he was seeing.

"I am a Gnawer, and you'd best remember it because if you see one it's probably not best to scream." Said the creature, trying to stay serious.

"In your tongue I think he would be called a rat..?" the girl added.

"But you… You can talk..!" said Zach, dumbfounded.

"Oh damn so can you! Crazy world we live in! Now get in here." Said Quicksilver, no longer attempting to keep serious apparently, picking Zach up and pulling him over the hatch and into the bunker.

The girl punched him in the side "Be serious, he doesn't know. Now, Overlander, where you are heading you're going to see a lot of things like this. Just try not to freak out too much, you'll get used to it."

Zach was speechless. Here he was. A regular kid, who missed the bus, and now he was dragged under a bridge and about to go into an abandoned bunker with a Giant rat, and a girl who was some sort of queen apparently. Perfectly normal.

"By the way, my name is Luxa." She said "And as you may have gathered this is Quicksilver."

"Where are you taking me? My family will notice I'm gone, the police will be after you guys!" Said Zach. "You can't just kidnap me and drag me off somewhere, why can't you just let me go, I didn't do anything!"

"You don't get it, Overlander. Neither of us want to bring you along, but if the council found out that an Overlander overheard us and we didn't take them with us then they would be furious." Said Luxa. "I would much rather get home without them knowing I came here but there's no use hiding that, now that you are here."

"Oh it's just my fault you had to freaking kidnap me and drag me into some spooky bunker" Which now that Zach thought about it, was getting a lot less like a bunker, and more like a cave or a tunnel of some sort. "Speaking of the bunker, what the hell is all this?" Said Zach as Luxa picked up a torch that was sitting on the wall. She then struck it across the floor, and it ignited, giving a lot of light, a welcome change from the darkness.

The light gave Zach a good look at Quicksilver. He really did look like a rat, he had a long nose, wicked fangs, and a tail he must not have noticed in the dark. And then Luxa. She was unlike any girl he had ever seen. She had silvery blonde hair that went down to around her shoulders, and her eyes were a bright shade of violet. He probably would have thought she was pretty if she wasn't kidnapping him.

"Currently we are on our way to the drop, where we have a flier waiting for us." Said Luxa, all business.

"Two questions, whats a flier, and what is 'the drop' or whatever you called it?" Asked Zach, now genuinely curious.

"A flier is another thing that might scare you, but if you freak out too much you'll probably fall to your death. The drop is where we meet the flier, its just a landmark."

"Wait what? Fall? How would I fall?"

"If you insult her, she is more than likely to throw you off, it's that simple."

Zach was getting more confused by the moment. Wherever Quicksilver and Luxa were taking him, he had given up all thought that this was a bunker. "How long has this been here? Nobody has found it." Asked Zach.

"Well you seemed to think you knew what it was, so why wouldn't anyone else? It's hidden quite well, I think." Said Quicksilver.

After they had walked for about 20 minutes down this tunnel, it ended. Nothing buck rocks, and the tunnel walls. As Zach was about to ask another question, Quicksilver crouched down to a particular large rock, and moved it aside revealing a hole about 4 feet in diameter. "Aurora! We have arrived!" cried Luxa through the hole. A moment later, a voice was heard from the hole, it was a low purring voice. "Drop."

Quicksilver looked at Luxa with a look that said "You take care of the new guy!" And jumped through the hole.

Luxa looked over back to Zach "Alright, you're going to have to trust Aurora. She will catch you when you drop. When she does, hang on to Quicksilver and you'll be fine." And with that she jumped through the hole before Zach could say anything.

They didn't seriously expect him to jump through that, did they? He sat with his legs dangling, freaking out. But then he realized something. He could just leave now, there was nobody watching him he could just get away now! No sooner did the thought cross his mind did he feel a tug on his leg and down the rabbit hole he went. Before he knew it he landed on something, and the torch Luxa had before was gone, so all he could do was hang on to Quicksilver in front of him as he could feel the rush of air as they flew.

At this point Zach's adrenaline was pumping, but the feel of flying was exhilarating! He had no idea how it was happening, or how he got here, or why the damn bus didn't stop for him, but right now he didn't care. He was flying.

"Well hey you're not choking me anymore, Overlander! First timers at this age are always terrified, when they have not learned to trust the fliers." Said Quicksilver, which Zach realized that there was no wind so they could talk normally. "What's your name, Overlander?"

"My name is Zach, and im slowly starting to hate this less and less."

Quicksilver laughed at the comment "Oh but you we're so mad about us bringing you here!"

Zach thought about this, he had always dreamed of a real adventure, like the ones he read about. He would dream about them, even write about them, but in the end he thought it would never happen. But here he was, flying through a cave, talking to a giant rat and a queen. "I've always wanted an adventure, so I'm willing to go along with this. Sorry I gave you so much trouble. Both of you"

Luxa spoke up from in front of Quicksilver "You need not worry, it is Quicksilver's fault for being late."

"Oh please, Would you rather I have gotten caught?" Said Quicksilver.

"Maybe then I would finally be able to stop looking after you!" Laughed Luxa.

"How long will you need me here?" Asked Zach.

"You will likely not be here long." Said Luxa

Zach had more questions, but he was cut off by the most beautiful thing he had ever seen. As the tunnel they were going through approached what looked like a light at the end, it opened up into a massive chamber that must have gone of for miles! He could not even see the end of it! But what he could see was the massive stone city that lay below him! It was lit up from torches being everywhere, and the light reflected off of the stones and made it the most amazing city he had ever seen.

Whatever it was he was riding spoke up "Welcome to Regalia, Zach the Overlander."

**This one was shorter, but I wanted to make a chapter between Zach being there, and the first chapter. So the next one will definitly be longer! I'm going to try and average them at around 2k words per chapter, some may be longer though. Tell me what you think! As of yet I haven't gotten any reviews, but i'm going to keep going and I hope anyone reading my story would give me a review and tell me how i'm doing! Thanks!**


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